SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/19/2012 8:14:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Knowing & Trusting the Lord
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 76 PT-1
Message of the verses: We will begin looking at several introductions to Psalm 76 in order to better understand what the psalm is all about.
“This psalm teaches that God is willing to use His great power for His people. Some commentators, including the editors of the LXX, have suggested that this psalm was written to celebrate the destruction of Sennacherib’s Assyrian army in 701 B.C. as well as the subsequent assassination of Sennacherib himself (vv. 5-6; cf. 2Ki. 18, 19; Isa. 36-37). The psalm also includes eschatological overtones (especially vv. 8-12), when Jehovah will defeat His enemies and bring them into judgment.” (The John MacArthur Study Bible)
“The background of this psalm is probably God’s judgment of the Assyrian army as recorded in Isaiah 37-38 and 2Kings 18-19. Other ‘Zion’ psalms include 46, 48, 87, 126, 132, and 137. But the emphasis in this psalm is on the God who accomplished the victory and not on the miracle itself. God’s might works reveal the greatness of His character and His power (75:1). Sennacherib’s officers boasted of their kin and his conquests, but their dead idols were no match of the true and living God (115:1-18). Asaph shares four basic truths about Jehovah God. (Dr. Warren Wiersbe)
God Wants Us to Know Him (vv. 1-3): “1 ¶ «For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph, a Song.» God is known in Judah; His name is great in Israel. 2 His tabernacle is in Salem; His dwelling place also is in Zion. 3 There He broke the flaming arrows, The shield and the sword and the weapons of war. Selah.” (NASB) “1 ¶ «TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A PSALM OF ASAPH. A SONG.» In Judah God is known; his name is great in Israel. 2 His abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion. 3 There he broke the flashing arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah” (ESV)
In 722 B. C. the Assyrians captured the northern tribes of Israel, which had been divided from Judah since Solomon’s son became king in Judah. The northern kingdom was very ungodly and in all of its history had never had a godly king. Their religious system did not follow the Law of God and so many godly people left the northern kingdom and came to Judah where they could worship the Lord in the way that the Lord had set up in His Law. We see in verse one that this is spoken of when we read that “In Judah God is known; his name is great in Israel,” and then in verse two we see that God’s abode is in Jerusalem in the temple that Solomon had built.
It has always been the desire of God to have all people’s know Him, and Israel was chosen to make God’s name known to others around Israel. One of the ways that God was known by the peoples around Israel was through His mighty power and in 701 B.C. the Assyrian’s were ready to attack Jerusalem and they were bragging about their god’s and saying that Judah’s God was weak. The angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian’s in one night and later on their king was killed in the temple of his god by his sons.
Jesus said to the woman at the well that “Salvation is of the Jews.” The Bible was written by the Jews and Jesus Christ, the Son of God was born into the family of David who was surely Jewish. In order to truly know the God of the Universe one must accept His Son as their Saviour and Lord, the One who paid for the sins of the world while suffering and dying on the cross.
God Wants Us to Trust Him (vv. 4-6): “4 You are resplendent, More majestic than the mountains of prey. 5 The stouthearted were plundered, They sank into sleep; And none of the warriors could use his hands. 6 At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep.” (NASB) “4 Glorious are you, more majestic than the mountains of prey. 5 The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil; they sank into sleep; all the men of war were unable to use their hands. 6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned.” (ESV)
God wants us to trust Him, and King Hezekiah, along with the prophet Isaiah, and the elders of Judah trusted that God would keep Jerusalem safe from the invading Assyrians. When you read the story in Isaiah’s account and the account in 2Kings you will find that Hezekiah was in a most difficult situation as the officers of the Assyrian army came and read a letter to the people of Jerusalem stating what they would do to them. In that letter they were blaspheming the God of Jacob and so when the letter was given to King Hezekiah he laid the letter down before the Lord and prayed to the Lord: “14 Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15 Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 "Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 17 "Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 19 "Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God." (2Kings 19:14-19)
When I was a new believer in the Lord I went to our church one day for something, I don’t remember exactly what it was, but while there we happened to come into the office of our Pastor who was laying sheets of paper on the floor of his office. I have always thought that he was doing like Hezekiah did in laying his prayer requests out before the Lord.
We see in the account of Hezekiah that he put his faith in the living God in this very hard situation and God answered His prayers and saved Jerusalem. I think of the three men in the book of Daniel who told the king of Babylon who was about to put them into a fiery furnace to kill them because they would not worship him, and they told him that their God was able to save them from the furnace, but if He chose not to do so He was still God. He chose to save them from the furnace.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I had to trust God in order to know Him, for when I was an enemy of God far from Him, He saved me and I became His child. I know that there will be difficult times for me in which I must continue to trust the Lord whom I now know and by trusting Him it will bring honor and glory to Him.
Hezekiah had a remarkable faith and I desire to have such a faith as that, trusting the Lord in difficult situations.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord and as I trust the Lord He will continue to teach me contentment.
4/19/2012 9:16:21 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment